AdWords/AOL Conversion Rate

[Learning Curve]

Got my first full day on AdWords Select on AOL yesterday. Three times the clicks but one-third the conversion. Ouch! I need to wait longer to see if this is a real pattern.

I was really looking forward to the AOL deal, so I'm quite disappointed right now. Hopefully, it was a fluke and conversions will improve.

It could be caused by the shorter ad (had to put the URL in the ad) and/or the differences between AOL and Google users.

Maybe it's product specific.

What are others seeing?

[WebGuerrilla]

There are huge demographic differences between Google users and AOL users. A significant drop in conversion rates is something you should expect. The same thing happened when Overture began distributing their ads.

What's nice about Google is that their site draws enough traffic to make opting out of partner distribution a viable option. That's not the case with Overture.

[littleman]

That's an interesting point WG. Overture has actually pushed users away from their site via their name change and splash page. I suppose the brand killing was to strengthen their product's value by minimizing on site competition, but it does seem short sited.